Conventional harvesting-threshers of rice, wheat, and similar cereals are known which merely strip the grain from the stalk, without cutting or uprooting the stalk. Such devices are almost invariably of very large size so that they are extremely expensive and require highly skilled personnel both to operate and maintain them.
For this reason only large farming operations can afford their own threshers. The equipment must be rented for the automated harvesting of small farms, or a group of small farmers may combine to purchase a single such harvester that is then used by all of them cooperatively. Neither of these solutions is altogether satisfactory. During harvest time several farmers will need the device simultaneously, requiring at least some of them to harvest at times which are not ideal. Futhermore should the harvester break down it is possible crops will go unharvested, as more than one farmer depends on the functioning of this single piece of equipment.